United States Computer Systems Under Attack, IT Security Lacking

White House emails and networks infiltrated, President elect Obama, and Senator McCain's computers attacked and infiltrated during the summer at least once.

The Chinese have been accused and caught spying on the United States since the early Clinton administration, though nothing has really been done about it.

Little action has been taken to secure the systems, guard information from them, and they are still vulnerable.

The scary part, is apparently the ease with which they were allegedly able to penetrate the systems and this should be a warning to any future candidates running for the office of the President of the United States, and any other people in the Government.

It was recently announced that the World Bank was hacked apparently numerous times as well.

Too many Companies, and Government systems holding sensitive data are unnecessarily vulnerable to outside attack. Placing this data on vulnerable and accessible networks is like leaving the door to the candy store wide open.

Recently, Michael Horowitz had a post on his Defensive Computing blog titled "Some Computers Are Too Important To Be Networked". I highly suggest you read it, and apply its lessons to your computer security plans. It is a short post and well worth reading.

An earlier post I had on this can be found here: Obama and McCain Computers Hacked Over The Summer.

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FDA Issues Press RElease: Do Not Use Infant Formula Manufactured In China

The FDA Issued a Press Release today warning consumers not to use baby formula made in China.

The complete release and a link can be viewed below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 12, 2008

Media Inquiries: Judy Leon, 301-827-3314 or 301-696-8921 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Issues Health Information Advisory on Infant Formula

In response to reports of contaminated milk-based infant formula manufactured in China, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today is issuing a Health Information Advisory. This is to assure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States. Although no Chinese manufacturers of infant formula have fulfilled the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States, FDA officials are investigating whether or not infant formula manufactured in China is being sold in specialty markets which serve the Asian community.

The FDA is advising caregivers not to feed infant formula manufactured in China to infants. This should be replaced with an appropriate infant formula manufactured in the United States as mentioned below. Individuals should contact their health care professional if they have questions regarding their infant’s health or if they note changes in their infant’s health status.

The FDA began investigating the reports of contamination immediately and received information from the companies who manufacture infant formula for the American market that they are not importing infant formula or source materials from China. The following manufacturers have met the necessary FDA requirements for marketing milk-based infant formulas in the United States: Abbott Nutritionals, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestle USA, PBM Nutritionals, and Solus Products LLC. Also, one manufacturer, SHS/Nutricia, Liverpool, England, markets an amino acid based exempt infant formula that does not contain any milk-derived ingredients.

We are asking state officials to work with the Agency to assist with the removal of any Chinese infant formula found on store shelves, and to warn members of the Asian community to avoid using Chinese manufactured infant formula.

It has been reported that a number of infants in China who have consumed Chinese manufactured infant formula are suffering from kidney stones, a condition which is rare in infants. The Chinese manufactured infant formula may be contaminated with melamine. Melamine artificially increases the protein profile of milk and can causes kidney diseases such as those seen in these Chinese infants.

FDA requires that all infant formula manufacturers register with the Agency and adhere to specific labeling and nutritional requirements. All properly registered infant formula manufacturers marketing infant formula in the United States undergo an annual inspection of their production facilities.

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Strong Earthquake Hits Tibet

The USGS is saying the earthquake was a magnitude 6.3, though locally it is being reported at 6.8 and it struck near the mountainous Zhongba County in Xigaze prefecture, close to India in southern Tibet and there are no immediate report of casualties.

The quake hit the region at 9:22 p.m. (6:52 p.m. IST), according to a National Earthquake Network press release.

The epicentre was about 10 km underground at 31.0 degrees north latitude and 83.6 degrees east longitude, Xinhua news agency reported.

The area, at an average altitude of 5,500 metres, is sparsely populated.

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Olympic Terror Threat Posted Online

BREAKING NOW:

With only a day left until the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games in China a threat has been posted online by a little known Chinese Islamist group known as Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), an ethnic Uighur and Muslim organization seeking to create an independent state out of China's heavily Muslim Xinjiang province.

The group has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks in the region and are now threating to strike the Olympic games and are warning other Muslims to stay away.

The video put out by the terrorist group can be seen below.

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China Stealing Secrets and Accessing U.S. Lawmaker Computers

In response to trusted United States lawmakers Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, China says it is incapable of launching such an attack.

Not only is this absurd, but China has a long history of being caught with their hand in the cookie jar, most notably during the Clinton administration in the past.

The allegations are the latest in a series of cyber security problems blamed on China. Reports last year cited officials in Germany, the United States and Britain as saying government and military networks had been broken into by hackers backed by the Chinese military.

The Pentagon acknowledged last month at a closed House Intelligence committee meeting that its vast computer network is scanned or attacked by outsiders more than 300 million times each day. Most of these attacks have been said to come from China, or Chinese sources.

The real question to be asking here is, are we currently fighting an unconventional war with China? If not perhaps we should be taking proactive steps to protect ourselves.

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